1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to electrically powered vehicles and relates specifically to an electrically powered bunker rake with a removable, rechargeable battery tray system.
2. Prior Art
One application for the present invention is in electrically powered bunker rakes that are used on golf courses, particularly for conditioning sand bunkers. Conventional electrically powered bunker rakes utilize six 6-volt lead-acid deep cycle batteries. Generally, one battery set of six 6-volt or six 8-volt batteries powers the bunker rake for about three to five hours. Once the battery set has discharged, if more bunker conditioning is required, the operator must either re-charge the battery set, which may take eight to twelve hours, or replace the battery set with a fully charged, alternate battery set. The batteries in the battery set are anchored to the bunker rake frame with metal or plastic hold-down brackets. To remove the batteries, the hold-down brackets as well as wiring to each battery must be removed. The process of exchanging the batteries is time consuming and is not conducive to efficiently conditioning all of the bunkers on a golf course.